​I remarked to a friend that I noticed grasshoppers in my garden this year. In fact, I was seeing them everywhere from the side of the building to the car windshield. Her response was that it was a bad thing due to grasshoppers eating crops. I never had that issue because I have guard birds that perch on the tomato cages waiting for the unwary insect. Marigolds serve as the floral garden barrier too. The flower smell doesn’t appeal to insects, but does attract bees.​The Chinese culture holds the grasshopper in high esteem. If anyone has seen Kung Fu, the television show, the main character’s nickname was Grasshopper. Many cultures pick names for what the traits they want the child to have. The grasshopper is a symbol of wealth, abundance, luck, long life,happiness, and fertility. The nimble insect is a pet in the Orient.

The Japanese associated the grasshopper with the moon. The various phases of the moon coax music from it. While I do have a twilight chorus in my backyard, it would be hard to pick out, which one is the grasshopper’s serenade, especially with the locusts out this year.

Golden grasshopper decorated combs and clasps found from the Ancient Greek civilization demonstrated the popularity of the insect among the noble class. It’s not really certain what the insect image meant. It could have been a trend just as our own fashion industry just finished owl decorated clothing and jewelry and has moved on to the elephant. There is a myth about Tithonus, wanting to live forever. Zeus granted his wish, but allowed him in immortality in the form of a grasshopper. Perhaps the nobles believed their grasshopper accessories gave them longevity.

The Iroquois relished seeing a grasshopper because it meant good fortune. Not only for whoever spotted it, but for the entire village. In that case, my village will be doing very well.

An old cartoon had the grasshopper fiddling and dancing, while the ant worked tirelessly. When a winter storm came on, the grasshopper had nothing and begged the ant for food. This gave the impression that a grasshopper was lazy. Far from it, the grasshopper not only can make tremendous leaps forward, which make it a progressive thinker, it can fly. Its ability to fly makes it both fearless and innovative. It truly thinks outside of the box. Even though it can become airborne, it is often a symbol of grounding due to its closeness to the ground.

The grasshopper is a muse to musicians, artists, and dancers too. It also calls to visionaries and those with a heightened sense of clairvoyance.

The grasshopper has a wonderful sense of play and joy. The cartoon that maligned the grasshopper as one who didn’t prepare for the winter, never pointed out that the insect usually only lives two months in warm weather. There was no reason for the grasshopper to concentrate on a future that would never be. The grasshopper reminds us to be present in the now.